The Loose Soul Murder Case
by Bra1n1ac
Summary: As Conan investigates the death of a young girl by a bridge over the Tsurumi River, her former boyfriend Keima appears. However, though Keima initially takes interest in the case, his attention is soon distracted by a grave problem; Conan's caretaker; Mouri Ran has a loose soul!
1. Chapter 1: Emiko Sasaki

The Loose Soul Murder Case

Chapter 1: Emiko Sasaki

* * *

"I... I don't even want to be here." Emiko muttered, looking out at the starry sky, and away from the boy, who stood across the bridge from her, "I'm missing out on my favorite shows, and anyway, my folks will want me to be home by nine."

That was when the boy across the bridge asked Emiko a question that she'd never heard anyone ask her before.

"Why do you watch those shows all the time?"

"You should know better than anyone." Emiko replied, still looking away, "It's the drama, the romance... I love it all, and it's all the stuff you never see anymore in the real world. Maybe at one time, people were like that, but not now... I mean, isn't that the same reason why you always play games?"

"I play games because they're superior to reality," the boy admitted, "but shows are different. You can't interact with them. They don't respond to you. A show can be a great sight, but it can never be an experience."

"I'll never get to experience drama like that..." Emiko insisted sadly, "Just go away. I'm not giving up my shows for any boy, and certainly not a boy who doesn't understand their value. Just... just..."

At that point, however, she'd looked back towards him, and something inside of her seemed to finally melt. In one hand, the boy was holding up a ticket for a studio taping of "Weeks of Wonder."

"I would never ask anyone" the boy said slowly, "to give up their world for a pathetic reality like this one."

"That ticket..." Emiko said with a smile, tears coming to her eyes, "It's for me... You got it for me. That's... That's the nicest thing that anyone's ever -sniff- done for me!"

"That's horrible." the boy said, however, "No one else has ever cared for you, or thought about what you wanted? Everyone has always tried to tell you what shape your life should take, or ignored you completely? Have you really suffered all of that, and no one has ever noticed the real you?"

"I guess it's not their fault..." Emiko muttered, looking away again, "I'm not really very cute, so..."

"There's only one problem with this ticket." the boy continued, however, ignoring the girl's reply, "There's only one of them."

"Huh?" the teenage girl replied, her blond hair starting to frizz a bit from the humidity of the river below the bridge, "Why is that a problem?"

At once, the boy moved forward, and Emiko's face started to turn red, as he took her hand in one of his, slowly placing the ticket in her palm, then closing her fingers tightly over it. The book was looking directly into her eyes from that point on, with every word that he spoke.

"The problem is that I can't come with you to the show." he said in a very serious tone of voice, "Emiko, you're a truly special girl, because you see things about the world that others ignore, to their own detriment. I want to be there with you, to hear about your dramas and your romances, but I don't want you to always be on the outside, looking in. Emiko... You've been hurt so badly by people who won't give you drama. Please, give me the chance to show you that drama can be real."

Emiko's eyes had been leaking tears up to that point, but just then, she began to cry much more openly, clutching the ticket in one hand, and yet, reaching both arms around the boy's torso.

"I want to believe it..." she said, "I want it to be true, but..."

"Shh..." the boy replied, putting his own arms on her shoulders as he spoke, "Please... Please, just..."

Emiko wished that she could have stopped the tears from coming out of her eyes and soaking her cheeks, but for some reason, that boy didn't seem to care. Could it be, she wondered? Could she really have stumbled into a real drama of her own? In that last moment, as their faces drew closer together, a glimmer of hope finally returned to Emiko's heart, after years of despairing of even finding what she'd sought. It was only then that her fingers opened, and the ticket fell from her hands, over the edge of the bridge, and probably into the water beyond. At last, her lips were pressed against those of a real boy; the lips of Katsuragi Keima.

* * *

The moment that the two kissed, there was a sound like a rush of air, and Emiko fell back onto the bridge, unconscious. Keima had to catch her, to keep her from hurting herself in her fall, but his job had been accomplished. Soon, there was a popping sound, and he looked up, to see that once again, Elsie had done her job, capturing the loose soul, just as she always did once it had left the body of its host.

"I'm got it, Kami-Ni-Sama!" Elsie exclaimed in delight, "The loose soul is caught!"

Elsie was a demon from the underworld, though a very cute and energetic one. Not too long ago, learning that Keima had a talent for filling the hearts of girls with love; a talent that he'd learned through years of "conquering" girls in video games, she'd approached him and asked for his help. He'd begun calling himself things like "the god of conquest" and "the god of games," and she'd needed someone who could conquer the hearts of girls.

You see, Elsie was chasing spirits called "loose souls," which had escaped from the underworld. When they escaped into the human world, they would seek out people with empty spaces in their hearts, and take up residence inside of those people, and if they were allowed to remain in the person for too long, they could mutate, transforming into horrible, deadly monsters. Keima, she'd explained, would need to fill the hearts of real girls with love. If he did this, the loose soul would be forced out of the girl, and Elsie could capture it in one of her containment bottles. To make sure that he helped her, she'd tricked him into agreeing to a contract, which had resulted in a magic collar being put around his neck. If he ever broke the contract, the collar would activate and cut off his head. However, a similar one had been placed around her neck. Elsie, it seemed, had no choice as to the contract's terms, and would suffer the same fate, if they failed to catch all the loose souls.

It was a hard situation to be in, but up to that point, Keima had caught quite a number of loose souls, and every time, the human girl who he'd "conquered" lost all her memories of him, as though she'd never even met him before, though the feelings in her heart often remained, unexplained and mysterious, in her eyes. That was what he was hoping would happen in Emiko's case as well. The truth was, Keima was so obsessed with games that there was no real girl who he liked. He considered the game world superior to the real one, and was often dismissive of real girls, and the real world in general. He certainly didn't conquer real girls because he wanted anything from them.

"You're sure she won't remember this..." Keima asked, as he looked up at Elsie, who, once again, was resting on her broom with the bottle in one hand.

"Kami-Sama..." Elsie said, "You know the girls you conquer never remember you afterwards..."

Keima sighed, and pushed his glasses back up with one finger as he lugged Emiko's unconscious body back off the bridge, to a safe spot, where she wouldn't be in danger of falling into the water, or being run over by passing cars.

"This one was different than most..." he said at last, feeling a bit disturbed as he sat Emiko up against a wall, "If she remembers this, she'll feel disillusioned, and that can really harm someone."

For a moment, Elsie looked puzzled and clueless, but at last, she smiled, and remarked "that's very kind of you, Kami-Ni-Sama... You actually care about this girl."

"I-idiot!" Keima replied, standing back up, "I don't care at all for real girls! I just hope... Never mind!"

However, Elsie had a knowing smile on her face as Keima pulled his PFP back out of his pocket and began the walk back home. In her own mind, at least, she knew that Keima didn't want anyone to be hurt on his account, whether he cared about real girls or not.

* * *

"I shouldn't have to do this, anyway..." Mouri Kogorou complained as he drove along, with the Tsurumi River on his left side, and a line of good-sized buildings on his right. His daughter Ran, however, spoke up quickly with a wave of her hand.

"Now, now, dad, don't be like that." Ran said, both eyes closed and a smile on her face, as if to balance out her father's scowl, "Remember, we need to get that crack in the windows repaired sometime, and it's too far to walk."

"You two didn't have to come along." Mouri replied, with the same displeased look as before, referring not just to Ran, but to Edogawa Conan, the small boy who was sitting in the back seat.

"Dad." Ran said, her expression changing to a slight frown and a squint as she spoke, "Jerry's bar and grill is on the same block. We can't trust you to go alone."

"Sheesh. I'm not some hopeless drunk." Mouri insisted, looking out the window for just a moment, but that was when he saw something that made him put on the brakes. There were the flashing lights of police cars up ahead.

"Eh? What's going on?" Mouri remarked aloud, slowing down and parking the car by the side of the road, then quickly getting out, before almost being run over by a passing, red truck. While Mouri stood and shouted at the truck in anger, Ran had already gotten out of her side of the car, and looking in the back window, to where Conan was already unbuckling his seat belt.

"Conan..." Ran said with a worried look on her face, "Please don't get in the officers' way this time, alright?"

"Okay!" Conan replied with his customary smile, peering at her through his large glasses. He looked the same as always, with his white shirt, blue suit jacket, red bow tie, gray shorts and white sneakers. His hair still stuck up in parts, but was mostly neat. As always, he looked very curious and eager to find out what was happening. Conan tended to get in the way from time to time, but he had a good heart, and there were times when Mouri; a private detective, had relied on him for assistance in solving crimes.

However, there was something about Conan that neither Ran, nor most people who knew him realized; that he'd once been known as Kudo Shinichi, and was actually not a young boy, but a very talented, amateur detective and a teenager; the same age as Ran. In fact, Ran had once been very close to Shinichi. They'd been very much like sweethearts since childhood. Still, when a strange poison had been used to transform Shininchi into a child, he knew that Ran wouldn't believe it was him, so he'd developed the identity of Edogawa Conan and made up a cover story. Mouri and Ran had since taken him into their home, and he'd become a helpful member of the family, it more ways than one.

You see, while Mouri Kogorou did have some talent as a detective, he also made many mistakes, and allowed his personality to get in the way a lot of the time. Most of the time, it was Conan who really solved the case; even though it usually meant knocking out Mouri with a special tranquilizer dart, and impersonating his voice. In fact, he had to do things like that rather often. After all, who would ever believe that a child had once been the most talented teenage detective in Tokyo?

Quickly, Conan had opened the car door and followed Ran outside, closing it behind him as he went, and the two had passed around the front of the car before Mouri had even finished shouting at the truck, which was long gone by that point. Still, Mouri let out one last "hmph!" as he led Ran and Conan towards the two police cars and one larger police vehicle, which were positioned by the side of the road, where a cement ramp lead down to the river itself. That was where most of the policemen seemed to be working, and pretty soon, Mouri was crouching near the top of the incline, looking down towards them. That was when the three of them spotted a detective, who they all knew.

"Hey!" Mouri exclaimed aloud, waving enthusiastically to the detective, "Megure!"

"Mouri!" Megure exclaimed, looking surprised for a moment, though his expression hardened just a second later. His brown hat and trenchcoat, as well as his white gloves made him stand out among both the uniformed and plain-clothes officers who were working around him. Some of them were fishing through the water, and others, examining a very wet body, which was lying next to the river, or talking with an old, bearded man in ratty clothes, who was standing near it.

"I should have known you'd show up." Megure noted a bit suspiciously, "You always seem to be around whenever a body turns up. Well, I suppose that as long as you're here, you may as well give me a second opinion on all this. It seems clear on most points, but there's one or two puzzling facts, that don't seem to fit in."

"No need to worry, Megure!" Mouri said, an overconfident smile spreading across his lips as he spoke, "I'll make it all clear in no time. So, you found that body in the water. I assume you suspect that tramp over there?"

"No, it looks like a suicide." Megure replied, pointing over his shoulder at the spot, just above the river, no more than a couple yards from the body. Sure enough, there was a bridge right over the river, just high enough that falling from it could indeed mean death; especially for a young girl, like the kind whose body was still resting next to the water, "The girl's name was Emiko Sasaki. She lives around here, and was known to enjoy television dramas and fresh sushi. She seems to have had a strange obsession with her hobbies, which made her something of a recluse. She had few friends, and usually avoided people in general. Not many people would have any reason to kill someone like that."

"Yes, that sounds right." Mouri admitted, pausing to think it over, "Also, suicides are often reclusive people; especially those with few friends."

Megure just shrugged his shoulders in response to that point, "I suppose I might be more depressed if I didn't have any friends. Still, there's one more piece of evidence that we haven't been able to explain, exactly."

"Oh?" Mouri asked, smiling eagerly, "Let's see it."

In just a moment, Megure was holding up a bag with a girl's hair ribbon inside, holding it out, so that both Mouri and Conan got a good look at the ribbon.

"Apparently, Emiko was wearing two ribbons on the day she fell into the river. One is still tied to her hair, and this is the other one. They're a matching pair; both the same make and color. However, this one was found in the water, near where her body was discovered."

"That is a bit odd." Mouri noted, "I suppose it must have come undone in the water, though. Those kinds of things happen."

"I thought so too, at first," Megure replied, "but look closer, Mouri. Can you see what I mean?"

For a moment, Mouri squinted at the ribbon, leaning just a little closer, until at last, with a satisfied, confident look, he straightened up, and said, "Yes, I see. The ribbon looks like it was cut in the middle. Some sharp object must have been used to cut the ribbon loose after she fell into the water."

"Not before?" Megure asked, looking just a little curious, but Mouri had an answer for that.

"I suppose it might have been cut before she fell, but in that case, why wouldn't it be on dry land? Did the wind carry it into the water, and if it did, why was it so close to the body?"

"Good job, uncle." Conan thought to himself, looking up at Mouri with a smile. Mouri Kogorou's deductions usually weren't so sharp, until he'd had a while to think over the facts. However, even though Conan was pleased with Mouri's deduction, and agreed with it, as far as it went, there was another possibility. It was possible that the ribbon had been cut before Emiko's fall, and had either remained in her hair until she sank into the water, or else that she'd been over the water when the ribbon was cut.

"Yes, that sounds right." Megure replied to Mouri's conclusion, "But what do you think could have cut the ribbon? That's what I'm puzzled by."

"Any number of things, I suppose." Mouri replied with a smile and a shrug, "Broken glass, sharp rocks, little bits of metal. I'd say it just got caught on something underwater, and was eventually cut through."

"I think that's the most likely explanation," Megure admitted, "After all, her arms and legs are all scraped up, so she must have been dragged along some nasty rocks by the currents. It surprises me that her head is mainly unharmed, except for a couple bumps on top, but that's no reason not to accept your explanation. In fact, as things stand now, it seems like the other investigators looking into this case are of the same opinion."

"I suppose it really is a simple case after all..." Mouri observed, though his confident smile was starting to fade as he asked his next question. "Who found the body first?"

"An old tramp by the name of Ochi Kazuki." Megure replied, "He's still down there by the body, repeating his testimony, if you'd like to talk to him about it."

"I don't think so. It'll probably be a waste of time." Mouri replied, shaking his head, "Still, there's one thing I would like to hear. You must have heard his testimony once. Did Ochi think it was suicide?"

Megure closed his eyes for just a moment at that point, but after a second or two, he replied.

"Mouri, I don't think Ochi is the best one to give opinions on how this happened. His testimonies were a little jumbled, and he kept asking for money."

"A normal tramp, in other words." Mouri noted a bit dismissively, "Still, what did he think?"

"He didn't think it was suicide," Megure admitted at last, "but he wouldn't say what he thought it was. I don't think he knows what to think, really. When I asked him why he was so against the idea of suicide, he just told me that he saw that girl every morning as she went to school, and she often looked distracted, but not depressed enough to take her life."

"Well, you can't always tell how somebody really feels, based on something like that." Mouri replied with another wave of his hand.

"He also mentioned a boy that he'd seen her with a couple times recently." Megure continued after a moment, "He said she'd seemed a little nervous whenever she was with him, as though she weren't sure whether she wanted him around or not. Then, about three days later, he saw her again, without the boy, and she looked happier than ever. Still, I'm not convinced this boy was involved. There aren't any traces on top of the bridge to indicate whether or not anyone was up there recently, or how many there were. I suppose she might have killed herself if she'd discovered that the boy was dead, but..."

"That's him!" came a shout from the direction of the tramp, who was a man with mismatched clothes, a hood and a short beard. He was pointing with a well-gloved hand at the top of the bridge, and there stood a teenage boy in a red outfit and glasses, looking down over the edge at the scene of death, with a grim expression on his face, his eyes wide open, and his teeth gritted angrily, though whether it was anger over the death of a friend, or over the body being discovered, Conan couldn't yet tell. His own eyes had already narrowed a bit behind his thin glasses as he looked up at the bespectacled teenager, already feeling that there was something very suspicious and secretive about him.

* * *

Katsuragi Keima had been on a train, headed in the direction of a game store when he'd heard the news about Emiko, from one of the rumored voices flying around the train. Elsie had been with him at the time, but as usual, she was nowhere near as interested in their errand as he was.

"Kami-sama!" Elsie said at last, after over half an hour has passed on the train, "Why do we need to go all across town anyway?"

Else's light purple eyes just stared at Keima as he sat next to her in the train, playing on his portable game system; the "PFP."

"We're on a gaming errand, of course." Keima replied, not even glancing at her as he spoke, "Isn't that what I told you before we left?"

"But, Kami-sama..." Elsie whined, once again calling Keima by one of her favorite pet-names for him, "Why is it taking so long to reach the store? Don't we usually go to closer stores, like the toy and game shops closer to the school?"

"I had no choice in this matter." Keima just replied, looking up into the air for a moment, as though vividly remembering his earlier struggles with the telephone that morning, "When a game is rare, and only in small-scale distribution, one must sometimes go to these lengths, to find a store that carries it."

"Is it really worth it, Kami-sama?" Elsie asked at last, "I mean, you already have so many games..."

However, at that point, Keima briefly glanced at her, before looking back down, and pushing his glasses up once again, as he often did when he was about to say something that he considered very profound and important.

"Let me teach you something useful. In this life, there are games which are very common, and some are common because of their quality. Others only because of the marketing. Yet, all common games share a common disappointment, no matter how wonderful the games themselves may be. You will understand this better, as you realize the truth; that the effort that one puts into acquiring a game increases its value within your heart!"

At that point, Keima's left hand shot out in front of him, as though pointing to something on the other side of the bus, and then drew back, until it was postioned partway over his hair. Elsie had seen Keima do things like that before in his enthusiasm for games, and whenever he did, she was astonished by his eagerness and spirit; so great that she could almost see the dramatic-looking cliff over the seaside, and the large, cloth hat that Keima held onto, to keep it from blowing away in the sea breeze. In fact, she was so impressed that bright sparkles came, for a moment, into her own eyes, and she forgot all about the aggrivation of having to ride the train for over half an hour.

"Kami-Sama!" Elsie exclaimed in delight, as she started to catch some of Keima's enthusiasm, "This must be a very special game to make you go to such lengths!"

At that point, however, Keima's expression returned to normal, and he went back to looking into his PFP screen as he replied, "Actually, it's just an edition I don't have yet."

"Waah!" Elsie moaned in disappointment, puffing out her cheeks in a pout, as she folded her arms, and a look of indignation came over her face. However, that was when Keima heard a name he recognized from one of the people, who were chatting nearby.

"...heard she was called Emiko, or something like that. Poor kid."

"What'd she die of?"

At that moment, Keima snapped to attention; his eyes locking in the direction of the speakers; two young women, one of whom had a bag of groceries on the seat next to her.

"Not sure, but I heard the policemen saying it might have been suicide."

At once, Keima's eyes went all glassy, though he just remembered to pause his PFP, as the indirectly-delivered news hit him like a lead weight. Could it be a different Emiko? Emiko wasn't an uncommon name. Still, they were in the same section of town. What if it -was- the same Emiko that he knew? Could Emiko really be dead, so soon after he's succeeded in his conquest, and had she really killed herself?

"Was it... was it me?" he muttered under his breath, "Did I do something to cause this? Is it even..."

For a moment, and only a moment, Keima actually considered continuing on to the game store to pick up his game, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to focus until he knew whether it was really Emiko who the two women had been talking about; if she'd really died as they'd said, and why. In just a moment, when the doors opened, he put his game into his pocket, and motioned for Elsie to follow him, though she looked very confused as she did so. In only a few minutes, the two were at the scene of Emiko's death, and one of his questions was answered.

* * *

Keima cursed in his thoughts as he stared down at the body of Emiko, with her arms and legs all cut, and her face obviously still recognizable. Elsie came up behind him just a moment later, and the moment that she saw the sight below, Keima heard her sharp intake of breath. Without even looking at her, he could feel her wide-eyed, horrified stare, and even knew that she had tiny tear droplets falling from her eyes. However, Keima was too angry to care by that point. In a flash, he'd turned to face Elsie furiously, and began speaking to her under his breath.

"Tell me that you wiped her memory." Keima almost hissed.

"Yes! It always happens that way!" Elsie almost squeaked, fighting back more tears.

"You're sure!" Keima half-whispered, clutching one of Elsie's arms as his stare grew more penetrating and alert than ever.

"Kami-Sama..." Elsie gasped, more hurt by his continued gaze than by his grip, "Of course... Of course! It happens the same way every time."

Once again, Keima cursed under his breath, then asked, more to himself than to Elsie, "Then why would she kill herself? It doesn't make sense. I filled all the spaces in her heart. She shouldn't have been depressed."

By that point, though, Elsie was sniffling, and unable to provide any really coherent replies, so in just a moment, Keima was rushing down the other side of the bridge, towards the place where the policemen and investigators were gathered.

* * *

Mouri had kept his eyes fixed on the boy for all the time that he'd been running in their direction, because there was something that he just didn't like about the kid.

"What... what happened here?" the boy in the glasses gasped out, apparently out of breath from his brief sprint.

"We're still piecing the specifics together." Megure explained, turning to face the teenager with a frown, and folding his arms sternly, "However, if you have some information about this girl, that might shed some light on the reason for her apparent suicide, you'd better tell us."

The boy didn't say anything, even once he'd caught his breath. He just looked at them all with a horrified, angry expression on his face. At last, however, just as he was opening his mouth, a young girl came rushing towards him from behind, crying her eyes out as she careened in his direction, and not looking where she was going.

Mouri stepped casually to one side, and out of the way as the girl collided with the boy, and soon, both of them had flown through the air, and come in for a pretty rough landing on the sidewalk. Soon, the two seemed to be on top of one another, and having some trouble disentangling themselves, with the boy looking more furious than ever, but not with the same, glaring intensity that he'd had before.

"Idiot! Look what you did!" the boy was shouting, and the girl seemed to be merely replying with shouted apologies, and trying to pull herself loose from him.

"They both look like idiots." Conan thought to himself as he watched the two struggling on the ground.

However, just then, an odd sound began to come from the pair; a sound that Conan had never heard before.

"Doro doro doro doro doro..."

It was only at that point that the girl began to wipe the tears from her eyes and sit up, and that was when Conan noticed something very odd about her. She was wearing a sort of hairpin, that was shaped like a plastic, cartoon skull. Of course, that was odd by itself. Conan had never seen a hairpin quite like it before, but the eyes of the skull were also blinking red, on and off, apparently from little electric lights inside of it, and it seemed to be what was making the noise.

The boy in the red looked more aggrivated than ever, even once he got loose from the girl and got back to his feet. He cursed briefly, mouthing the words "not now!" Conan noticed that immediately, but by that point, the girl had tapped her hairpin, and it has stopped flashing and producing light.

"Who would have a hairpin like that?" Conan wondered to himself with a wry look in its direction, but by that point, the boy and girl seemed to be whispering to each other, and after a few seconds, the girl did something that worried Conan. She started pointing at Ran, who was looking at the two of them curiously.

* * *

"Even if I had time, I would still refuse." Keima insisted angrily, "She's just a plain, normal girl, with no special parameters at all."

"Kami-Sama!" Elsie insisted, "You've got to do it! She has a loose soul, and if it matures inside it, the whole city could be destroyed!"

"Even so, to conquer such a plain person would be worse than being destroyed." Keima griped, looking off to one side angrily, "She's the sort who always gets the attention of normal guys, and goes out with normal guys. We she just let one of them conquer her."

"There's nothing wrong with her, Kami-Sama!" Elsie insisted, pouting in anger a moment later.

"You still don't understand the high standards of a god of gaming..." Keima muttered, pushing up his glasses again.

"Huh?"

"Whenever a gal game is made, it presents a girl who has strong parameters; often one who belongs to a type, or category of girl personalities." Keima explained, "There are shy, librarian girls, stuck-up, rich girls, anxious athletic girls, girls with deep, inner troubles, which must be cut through, girls of high stations, low stations, girls who are already popular, and so on..."

As Keima had been describing each type, his pose changed, Elsie noted, to match the typical pose of that type of girl in games. She still looked very lost, but Keima continued, unperturbed.

"Some girls are meant to be side characters, who make interesting friends for the main girl, but that girl over there doesn't even fall into that category. She's nothing more than one of the girls who passes you in the hallway as you head to your next encounter!"

"You should at least give her a chance, Kami-Sama!" Elsie exclaimed, but by that point, Keima was looking off to one side.

"Furthermore," he continued as if Elsie hadn't even spoken, "she already has a boyfriend, to whom she's very devoted, but he doesn't visit often enough. No one would buy such a foolishly-structured game."

"Wow! Amazing, Kami-Sama!" Elsie exclaimed, her eyes full of sparkles again as she stared at Keima in awe, "How could you know so much about her?"

"Hmmph!" Keima replied, but with a slight smirk, to indicate that he was pleased by the praise, "Well, she's obviously both friendly and beautiful. She's been approached by boys. She's been looking up and to the left wistfully every time she looks over here. I remind her of someone; clearly a teenage boy, and if she thinks of him fondly enough, a boyfriend. However, he's not dead, and there was no breakup, or her wistful memories would be tinged with sadness. Finally, the fact that she has a loose soul, and so empty spaces in her heart indicates that the boy is probably not around often enough. It's so simple that anyone could see it."

"That's so cool, Kami-Sama!" Elsie gasped again, still staring at Keima in amazement, and it had put him in a slightly better mood.

"I won't conquer her." Keima said at last, doing his best to look thoughtful for just a moment, "Still, if we can discover what happened to Emiko, I may agree to help her with her boyfriend. After all, he can surely fill the spaces in her heart, just as well as I can, if he has proper training."

Elsie still looked a little disappointed, but in just a moment, they'd turned back towards the place where the detectives were still talking hurriedly.

* * *

"I don't know." Mouri said at last, "I'm starting to think that kid must have something to do with it. He's been acting suspicious ever since he got here. I wonder what he's up to."

"Why not ask him?" Megure asked with a sideways glance, "I don't think he'll have anything important to offer, but it couldn't hurt to try. After all, we still haven't been able to get anything out of him, and I'm sure he knows more about Emiko than we do."

"Right. Good idea." Mouri replied, walking over to where Keima was standing; just a little closer to Ran than he liked.

Soon, though, Mouri cleared his throat, and using his deepest and, he felt, most intimidating voice, he spoke to Keima very solemnly.

"It won't do any good if you try to hide important facts. Just by not saying anything, you're already giving me information. You can't hide the truth from me, so why not just confess what's really going on here?"

"What are you talking about?" Keima asked, looking more irritated than confused, but Mouri's expression was growing more pompous than ever as he replied.

"Surely, you've heard the name of the great Mouri Kogorou."

For a moment after that, Keima continued to look irritated, but at last, his expression twisted a little, then turned to a thoughtful look, as he nestled his chin in his left forefinger thoughtfully.

"The harrier pilot from xenopunk? No, that was Doki Kogorou. I've got it! You must mean that one NPC who sells you flowers by the bus station in Tomi Tomi Surprise!"

"You punk kid!" Mouri almost shouted with a scowl on his face, "I'm not some lousy character in a game!"

"Even for a real person, you're presumptious. If you're not in any games, don't expect me to know who you are." Keima just replied, his irritated frown returning, "I am a citizen of games."

By that point, of course, Mouri had lost his temper, and was yelling and screaming at Keima, no longer the least bit concerned with seeming intimidating. However, Conan didn't care about that anymore. He was more interested in hearing what Ochi Kazuki had to say about how the body was found. In only a few seconds, therefore, he'd slid down the concrete to where the tramp was standing, and seemed to be scolding one of the police officers.

"Gramps!" Conan exclaimed to the tramp in his most child-like voice, "Is it true you found the body all by yourself?"

The man looked a little perplexed at first, as though he wasn't sure whether he should be talking to the child, or shooing him away from the crime scene, but at last, he bent down with a friendly smile on his face, and stroked Conan's head as he gave his answer.

"Yes. That was probably my finest hour. Only time in recent memory that I did anything without expecting money in return. I hope..."

"Did?" Conan asked, still looking just plain curious, "What did you do, gramps? I thought all you did was find the body and call the cops."

"No, that's not all." the tramp replied with a pleasant shake of his head, "You see, when I first saw the body, it was floating in the water, and I knew I had to get it out somehow, so I used the rope I'd found that morning, tied it around one of the bridge supports, and swam out to reach the body. Once I'd caught hold of the body, I turned her over in the water. She wasn't breathing, but with these drowning cases, you never know what that might mean, so I tied the rope around her and pulled us both back to dry land. That's the whole story. Now, maybe you should..."

"But gramps..." Conan asked, doing his best to sound disappointed over being sent away so soon, "Where's you get the rope?"

"I found it just a little ways upstream from here." the tramp replied, "It was a little frayed, but it looked nice and strong, so I decided that if nobody else wanted..."

"Thank you, gramps!" Conan shouted as he ran off, towards the spot where the body was. He looked at it for a few seconds, but aside from the one missing ribbon, which Megure still had, there didn't seem to be much in the way of clues. However, that changed when he got a good look at the length of rope that had been used to retrieve Emiko's body.

Sure enough, just as Ochi had said, the rope was frayed, and in two spots more than anywhere else. However, Conan noticed something else about the frayed spots; something that the other investigators apparently hadn't realized.

For a moment, Conan just looked up at the underside of the bridge, feeling perplexed as he wondered what kind of person would try to commit suicide in that way, and if she had, then how had she dies of asphyxiation? Had it been drowning? Then what about the bump on her head?

"Something's wrong here." Conan realized silently as he ran the facts over in his mind, "I don't think this was a suicide after all."


	2. Chapter 2: The Mystery is Being Solved

The Loose Soul Murder Case

Chapter 2: The Mystery is Being Solved

* * *

Mouri had finished his shouting before too long, and Keima still wasn't too upset by it, but it surprised him, just a moment later, when the plain-looking girl had walked right up to him, and initiated an encounter.

"Don't let dad get to you. He gets upset about things like that, but he's not a bad person, and I'm sure he doesn't want to hurt you. Still, if you have anything you're keeping from them, you should probably come forward with it."

Keima just looked at Ran for a couple of moments, a little confused about how best to respond, in order to turn her away without hurting her. However, in just a moment, she'd spoken again, without any provocation.

"I'm Mouri Ran. What's your name?"

"Katsuragi Keima..." Keima replied quickly, still looking into her eyes curiously. In his experience, it was unusual for the girl to begin by speaking to the boy, and in its own way, it was also a bad sign, since it implied that she didn't think there was any chance of a real relationship developing between...

"No!" Keima thought to himself, forcing himself back out of his conquering way of thinking, "No, she's a passing-by, crowd-girl! Remember, you're not going to conquer her."

However, Keima had made one mistake while he'd been forcing his thoughts back where they belonged. He'd kept looking into Ran's eyes, and she seemed to have gotten the wrong impression from that.

"Wh-why are you staring at me like that?" Ran asked, looking a bit nervous and puzzled, her eyes half-shut, as she backed away from Keima just a little. At last, however, he decided that the time had come to get to work on his real mission.

"You're being very kind to me, and I'm surprised by that." Keima said at last, looking away for just a moment, "Your friends must really enjoy your company."

For a moment, Ran looked really taken aback by that remark, but soon, she'd started to look just a little sad, and at last, she looked away from Keima.

"I guess they do." Ran almost muttered, but in those words, and those glances, Keima had seen solid confirmation of every conclusion he'd drawn already; that she had a boyfriend, who was spending very little time with her. Still, Ran's sadness seemed to indicate something even more than that. He could tell that her boyfriend hadn't died, because she was worried that he didn't want to spend time with her. How much time, Keima found himself wondering, had her boyfriend actually spent with her recently? Was it really as little as that?

"You guess?" Keima asked, pressing the matter, but as it turned out, that was a mistake. In just a moment, Ran had both eyes closed, and a smile on her face again, holding up both hands.

"No, don't worry about it. Never mind." Ran said, as though intentionally trying to be as pleasant as possible. Still, those words meant that she was clamming up about the one thing that Keima most needed to hear from her; the identity of her boyfriend, and what his relationship with Ran was like.

In a moment, Keima wondered if he should attempt to conquer Ran after all, when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the little boy in the large glasses, climbing up over the edge of the concrete that lead to the place where the body was. That was when Keima got an idea. Of course, he knew that younger brothers were often obstacles to successful conquests, but then again, they might not only provide information themselves, but serve as a means of encouraging trust between the player character and the older sister.

"Hey, Ran, can I make a phone call?" Conan asked as he rushed up to Ran and Keima, looking a little distracted by something, but Ran just nodded for a moment, handing him a few quarters.

"Just be careful of traffic." Ran warned him in an almost motherly way, to which Conan responded with a smile and an "Okay!"

However, Keima was watching him as he crossed the street and started to make his call, pulling his necktie out just a little as he spoke into the phone, though Keima couldn't hear any of what he said. There was something about that little boy, Keima thought in interest, that seemed even more secretive than Ran, but nevertheless, he decided it would probably still be best to appeal to the kid for information.

"What's his name?" Keima asked Ran, donning a smile in the hopes that she, in her plain, vanilla, pleasant ways, might feel more comfortable talking with him.

"That's Edogawa Conan." Ran replied, apparently pleased by the question, "Dad and I have been taking care of him for what feels like ages, ever since..."

For a moment, Ran's voice started to trail off, and in his mind, that alone was strong evidence. Ran was practically telling him her life story, if only she'd realized it. However, after a second or two, Keima interrupted her train of thought.

"He seems like a good kid. How about if I take you both for ice cream after we're done here?"

For a moment, Ran's face took on a very stern expression, and she seemed as though she was about to scold Keima, but he quickly followed up his last remark with "I'll go and tell the police detective everything I can about Emiko."

Ran still looked a little distrustful, but finally, with both arms folded, her expression began to soften, and she gave just a little nod.

As Keima went to tell Detective Megure all about the kind of person who Emiko had been, he felt, if anything, a little gratified that all of his predictions about Ran were proving so true. The only thing he hadn't predicted was the degree to which Mouri's apparent lack of maturity and the presence of Conan in her life had encouraged her to see herself as a sort of mother and authority figure, and fortunately, that was an easy sort of think to work into his plans.

* * *

Conan had just finished his phone call, and gotten what he hoped was a lead. He was continuing to ponder the significance of the rope as he processed the new information. The frayed bits had been about four yards apart from each other; just long enough to stretch across a single lane of traffic, or along a number of other things. Those thoughts were still running through his head when he went back to where Ran was standing, and saw that the teenage boy wasn't there anymore. In fact, he seemed to be talked eagerly to Megure, who was nodding and taking notes, occasionally interrupted when he needed clarification on a certain point. when it came to getting testimonies, Megure was very thorough, so Conan knew it would be a minute, at least, before the teenager came back.

"Who's he, Ran?" Conan asked, looking right at the teenager in what he hoped was a curious way.

"He says his name is Katsuragi Keima, and he'll be taking us to get ice cream after we're done here."

"Huh?" Conan asked, suddenly beginning to wonder if Keima had been attempting to ask Ran on a date, "Why?"

"What's wrong, Conan?" Ran asked a moment later, looking down at him in surprise, "I thought you loved ice cream."

"No, I'm just not sure why he'd do that." Conan replied, "Did we do something for him? Maybe he's grateful that we're trying to find out what happened to Emiko."

"I don't think that's it, Conan." Ran said, however, "If a close friend of yours had just died, and it seemed to point to suicide, what would you think? Wouldn't you be upset? Wouldn't you feel lonely?"

"I guess so." Conan admitted, though Ran's words weren't really conforting him, exactly, or limiting his worries.

"I'd say that Keima probably just needs someone to talk to." Ran noted, "That other girl over there doesn't seem like a very good confidant, so maybe he thinks he can talk to us a little more freely. I hope that's it."

"Me too." Conan thought, as Keima finished giving his testimony, shook hands with Megure, and headed back to where Ran and Conan were waiting for him.

"Okay." he said, smiling at both of them in, Conan noted, a very convincing way, "Where would you like to go for ice cream?"

Soon, Ran was leaning over to look at Conan a little more directly, and asked "what's your favorite place, Conan?"

Though the whole idea of Keima taking Ran out for ice cream irked Conan deep down inside, he could see an opportunity in that invitation, and in the choice that he was being offered.

* * *

"Ice cream, Kami-Sama? That's great! Can I have some too?"

"No. You're not coming along."

"Eh?! Why not?"

"Because I need them both to be comfortable talking to me, so that I can get the information I need on Ran's boyfriend." Keima insisted, "This is an important mission. You can't come."

"Awwww!" Elsie whined, but Keima seemed to have stopped paying attention to her by that point.

"Actually, I'd expected her to refuse the ice cream."

"Eh?"

"Girls like her, and especially girls with loose souls often play hard to get when it comes to what kinds of encounters they're willing to accept. They may reject the encounter out of hand, try to hold out for something they like better, or even, in rare cases, propose something else instead. Ran didn't do that, and it was probably because she wanted Conan to come too. I don't know why that is, but she seems attached to him. Furthermore, the offer of ice cream is a very uncreative and plain one. I thought that even a girl as plain as her might reject it on that basis, but I see that her parameters really are all fives. If not for her father and Conan, she'd almost be like one of those NPCs that stands by the edge of town, and tells you the name of the place you've arrived at."

"In any case, her problem is becoming clearer." Keima added at last, "The empty place in her heart is definitely a big one, but she ignores it a lot of the time, because she wants to be the rock of her little family. It may be that her problems are isolated; mainly surrounding one or two people. When she tries the ice cream, I'll know for certain."

"Huh? The ice cream?" Elsie asked, looking clueless again.

"Girls will boy troubles will drop subtle clues as to the nature of their problem." Keima explained, pushing his glasses back up once again, and Elsie began to envision him pointing to various examples of the things that he was describing as he spoke, "Some will have only minor problems, which barely matter to them at all. Others will obsess over their boy troubles, and will drop larger clues to that effect. However, the hardest by far to figure out are those who have large problems, but in their minds, keep them isolated within one tiny section of their lives. They may seem like perfectly happy people most of the time, but when the subject that causes them distress is brought up, they forget their happiness, and their troubles briefly consume them, making them visibly sad, until they force those problems back down again."

"The real trouble is that such girls will often notice if you bring up the subject on purpose, to discern the truth." Keima continued, "A subtle means of learning the true nature of their problem is therefore needed; to prompt them to think about their troubles, and watch their reaction, to see whether the trouble is big or small. I've already seen that Ran's problem is a big one. The only thing left to learn is whether or not it overwhelms her. If this problem has consumed her life, she'll remain sad, and even after taking the ice cream, her delight will be tinged with sadness. In that case, it may be that her problem is caused by someone, like her father, who's a constant influence on her life. However, if the problem is caused by someone who's only occasionally present, or even not present at all, then she may enjoy the ice cream just as much as a perfectly-happy person would. This means that although her problem is big, it's not everpresent. In that case, however, it would mean that she almost never gets to meet with her boyfriend, and that only makes things more difficult. In that case, I may have no choice but to try to conquer Ran myself."

"In any case," Keima concluded, "the ice cream will give me the last of the information I need. She's been closed-lipped so far, but soon, she'll be an open book to me."

"Wow!" Elsie thought to herself as Keima walked off in Ran's direction again, "Ice cream is so important to learn about people."

* * *

Conan had been suspicious of Keima from the very moment that he'd heard about the offer of ice cream, but his suspicions had only grown as he and Ran had walked with Keima to the ice cream shop, just a mile or two down the river, at a seaside area with a lot of small shops and businesses, as well as quite a number of boats, which were tied at the docks that made up the left side of the area. It offered a beautiful view of the sea, and the stunning sight of all those ships, from large liners, to tiny fishing boats, all tied and floating in their respective places. Still, in a way, the beautiful sight made Conan feel even more uneasy. If Keima was planning to make any sort of move on Ran, that pretty environment would only make things easier, and some part of Conan, after all, was still Shinichi, and still dreamed of spending his own adult life with her. Conan couldn't remember the last time that anyone had ever seemed interested in Ran aside from himself, which, in hindsight, he realized, was a little odd.

In a way, the threat of having Ran taken from him had distracted Conan. He'd initially chosen that place in the hopes of finding a specific clue there, but suddenly, he found his attention being divided, between looking for the clue, and trying to keep Keima and Ran away from one another. It was a lousy situation, he realized, but he needed to try to find some way to deal with Keima first, if he wanted to have the time to go looking for clues.

Conan waited until Keima had come back with the ice cream; one cone each for Conan and Ran, and one for himself. Then, he handed the ice cream out, and sat down on a bench to take a lick of his, looking sadly up into the sky as he did so. Conan immediately took the opportunity to sit down right next to Keima, so that Ran wouldn't be able to, and Keima, at least, seemed to recognize the obstacle with a slight twitch of his face.

"So, you -were- trying to move in on Ran." Conan observed silently, his eyes locked on Keima's for just a moment as the two examined each other, "You have no chance. No matter what, I'll stop you."

* * *

"You little brat." Keima thought as he stared, for a moment, into Conan's eyes, and began to recognize the calculating will that opposed him from behind those large spectacles, "It doesn't matter what you try. I'll learn what I need to learn."

However, the moment had passed quickly, and soon, Conan had turned to look at Ran, who was seated next to him, licking the ice cream. That was when a look came into her eyes, which Keima found absolutely chilling, because she was really enjoying the ice cream, and she wasn't making any effort to hide it.

"Oh, wow! Conan, this ice cream is great!" Ran noticed with a smile, "Thank you, Keima. Conan, say thank you to Keima for the ice cream."

Ran's words seemed to have jarred Conan out of some train of thought that he'd been preoccupied with before, because it took him a couple of minutes to nod at Keima, and remark "Thank you."

Keima could tell that he didn't mean it, however, and indeed, was trying desperately to get rid of him. Still, he just wanted, for the moment, to focus on getting the information he needed.

"I guess it's good ice cream." Keima remarked looking up at the sky, "Still..."

For a moment, Ran and Conan looked at Keima curiously, but finally, Ran seemed to have come to a realization, the smile fading from her lips. At last, handing her ice cream to Conan, she stood up, walking over to where Keima was seated, and put one hand on his back.

"Phase one successful." Keima thought silently, even as Conan seemed to realize what was really going on, and piped up.

"Mister, my ice cream's dripping. Can you get some napkins to..."

"Not now, Conan." Ran said a bit sternly, "Keima's had a hard day. A friend of his just died. Don't bother him."

Conan was a little taken aback, but Keima felt like smiling, though he didn't dare to. It was all going just as planned. Ran had gotten closer to him, and more importantly, he had the information that he needed about her boy troubles.

The problem, of course, was that he was sure, by that point, that Ran almost never saw her boyfriend, which meant that getting in contact with him, or encouraging him to improve his relationship with her was out of the question. The only thing left was to conquer Ran, and that presented its own problems, apart from her very plain, and to Keima, unlikable personality.

One of the biggest problems was in Ran's apparent devotion to her boyfriend. In spite of his frequent absence from her life, she was amazingly devoted to him. Convincing her to fall for Keima instead would require a very special route, and everything would need to be just right, in order to make it work.

The other problem, therefore, which compounded the first, was the presence of Conan. He was clearly distrustful of Keima, and trying to get rid of him; as a protective younger brother, trying to look out for his sister. Still, it would take too long to try to win him over if the ice cream hadn't done the trick. In the end, Keima decided, the only solution was to wait for the kid to get lost before attempting a confession, though in the meantime, he could try to set the stage for that confession. The kid might still try to get in the way, but, Keima thought, he could cope with those problems as they arose, and none would be fatal to the route he had planned.

"It's horrible..." Keima said to Ran aloud, looking as sincere as he could, while he spoke to her, "I keep wondering if I could have done something else; something to prevent all of this from happening."

"It's not your fault what happened." Ran insisted, however, apparently trying to cheer him up.

"I wonder if I did something to disillusion her." Keima admitted at last, "I may never know why she died, and I don't know what to do. I mean, when someone just disappears from your life; someone who was very important to you... I mean, how would you cope with that?"

For a moment, Ran's expression turned almost totally blank, and she seemed to be staring off into space, as though she wasn't sure what to do or say. However, with Ran apparently distracted for a moment, Conan got up and put the ice cream cones down on the bench they'd been sitting on. Then, in just a moment, he was staring out at the sea, exclaiming "Wow, that's the biggest boat I've ever seen!"

It wasn't the only thing that Conan said, but soon, he was making such an upbeat, chipper racket, that Keima was sure Ran's thoughts would be interrupted, and she'd start forgetting her problems again, instead of getting closer to talking about them. At last, Conan pounded a nail into that coffin, when he walked right up to Ran, and asked "Ran, are you okay?"

Ran still seemed dazed for a moment, but soon, she'd blinked and replied "Oh, Conan... Yes, I'm fine. My mind just wandered for a minute."

"Oh, good." Conan replied with a pleasant-looking smile, "You forgot your ice cream."

By that point, though, a few things were becoming clear to Keima. To start with, Conan was clearly trying to sabotage him, and was uncommonly good at it. He knew something of how to elicit reactions from people, and manipulate them without their noticing. Worse yet, Keima thought, his motive couldn't have just been brotherly concern. It was too much for just that. Somehow, Conan had arrived at the conclusion that Keima was definitely bad for Ran, or else, he had some other motive. Keima still wasn't really sure what to make of Conan when, a moment later, Ran went over to pick up her ice cream, and Keima decided that the time had come to be more direct.

"Ran..." he said at last, "More than anything, right now, I need some advice on how to cope with loss. Do you know anyone who could..."

That was when something struck Keima hard in the back of the head, and for a while, all he could see was stars.

* * *

For a moment or two, Conan had pretended to be shocked by Keima's sudden "misfortune," and had even helped ran get his unconscious body back onto the bench, and make sure he had a pulse. At that point, asking Ran to look after the swirly-eyed Keima while he went and got some napkins, Conan set out to fulfill the other half of his mission there.

He'd felt bad about knocking Keima out, but he hadn't seen any other way to neutralize him, and still have time to go looking for clues. Thanks to the special, power-enhancing kick shoes that had been designed for Conan by the brilliant, but odd Professor Agasa, he could kick any randon object with enough power to knock out a full-grown man in a single shot. Usually, Conan didn't use it unless he was attempting to subdue a fleeing criminal, but Keima was too clever, and much too persistent, to trust alone with Ran, as long as he was conscious.

Quickly, Conan ran until he was out of sight of the bench where Ran was sitting, then started looking at the names of each of the boats he'd passed by. The harbor office, which he'd called earlier, had mentioned the name of one boat, which he was determined to find. In only a few minutes, however, he came into sight of a boat matching just that description, and sure enough, as he ran up to it, he could see the name painted on the side; the Huntsman. After taking just a moment to check, and make sure no one was aboard, Conan climbed up the rope that tethered the boat to the dock, and got on board.

Acting quickly, Conan's eyes swept across the deck of the ship, noting that it had been recently scrubbed, and that at least three people worked onboard. The cabin and hold of the ship, of course, were locked, and there didn't seem to be any clues on the main deck.

That, however, was when Conan got up onto one of the railings, and slowly pulled himself up onto the roof of the ship's cabin. Just at the moment that he looked across those plain, red shingles, Conan saw something that brought a confident smile to his face. He didn't know the motive of the crime yet, but in every other respect, the case was as good as solved.

* * *

Fortunately, the moment that Conan had run off for napkins, Ran had gotten up from her own seat and started trying to wake up Keima. She'd tried yelling at him, pinching him, and finally, had run back to the ice cream shop to get some water for him. When she'd started to pour some of the water onto his face in little trickles, it fortunately only took him about a minute to wake up fully, and start coughing and rubbing his head. At first, Keima made some remark about "trouble for a 2D woman," but Ran wasn't concerned, and in just a moment, he seemed to have fully regained his senses, and was back to looking worried about his situation, though he was also rubbing his head at the same time.

"I guess I just don't know what to do now." Keima said at last, as soon as Ran had sat back on her side of the bench, but as before, she quickly rushed to comfort him.

"Don't worry so much." Ran reminded him, "Dad will solve the case, and you'll have your answers soon."

"I know..." Keima replied, looking away for a moment, "But that doesn't solve everything. I still don't know how to cope with the loss of my friend. Do you know anyone who can help me with that?"

For just a moment, Ran started to look nervous again, but at last, looking back at the ground, she spoke, and in those words was the start of the route; the beginning of the very thing that Keima had been waiting for.

"I knew a boy once, who hasn't been around for a long time."

Keima just looked at her curiously for a couple of seconds, then asked, "Is it anything like my problem?"

A few more seconds passed in silence, but at last, after glancing at Keima a couple more times, Ran began telling her story.

"His name was Kudo Shinichi. He was a friend of mine since we were children. Maybe I got mad at him too often for being obsessed with detective stories, but I just wanted him to be with me more often and... and..."

Ran swallowed, then continued, "He was a genius, Keima. They used to say that there was no mystery he couldn't solve. The police department called him their savior. He was so good at finding things, figuring out things, disguising himself, hiding, sneaking... He was creative and clever, but he was so honest... I mean, he was always honest back then. You couldn't ask for a beter detective, or a better person."

"But lately... Lately..." Ran almost choked out, "Lately, Shinichi's disappeared. I don't know what happened, but after he solved one case that had to do with a roller coaster, he just... he just wasn't there anymore. Now, he's been missing for months and months, and he's only showed up a couple of times since then, for a few minutes at a time. For a while, I wondered if he was avoiding me, but he hasn't been back to his house either. Even dad hasn't been able to find him. We've just been so busy since Shinichi disappeared, with so many new cases, and taking care of Conan... Conan showed up just a little later, by the way."

Once again, Keima waited until he was sure that Ran was finished with what she had to say, before he pressed her to continue.

"You said you don't think he's been avoiding you on purpose. What do you think -has- happened to Shinichi?"

"I don't know for sure," Ran admitted, looking more determined as she spoke, "but if I had to guess... I think he's in danger, and he's hiding, to try to protect himself. There's just one thing I don't understand. If that -has- happened, why hasn't he warned me, or given me some kind of instructions? I could help him if he asked me to, or if he thought that would put me in too much danger, he could just tell me how to protect myself somehow. It's like... It's like he doesn't even trust me anymore. That's the worst part of it. He used to tell me all about his cases, even though he knew some of the crooks he'd caught were dangerous. I wish he'd just reappear and give me something to do. There are days when I think I'd do almost anything, if only..."

However, Ran's voice drifted off by that point, and soon, she was silent again, staring off into space.

"Maybe he hasn't told you the truth because he's afraid of how you'll react." Keima said at last, "Some of my friends have a hard time believing me, even when I tell them the truth."

Ran, however, turned to face Keima just a moment after that, looking firmly into his eyes as she said, "I wouldn't be like that. When a good person tells me the truth, I always believe them. I know I always tell the truth to the people I care about most. I never leave them in the dark."

"Tell me something, Keima." Ran continued after a pause of just another moment, "The people you care about most... Do youoften lie to them or keep them in the dark?"

At once, Keima's mind filled with images of Yotsuba Sugimoto, and a pleasant, relieved smile had returned to his face a moment later, when he said "The people who I care about most are the honest ones, who are truly ideal. Lying never enters our thoughts, and secrets only draw us closer together. I try to spend as much time as possible with those people, because how could I live otherwise?"

For a moment, Ran just started staring as Keima, and it seemed as though her expression was starting to change, when Conan ran up again, with a frown on his face.

At first, Keima was a bit pleased to see how crestfallen Conan looked. Apparently, he'd hoped that Keima wouldn't wake up. Still, the very fact that Conan had apparently planned for Keima to fall unconscious, or even been responsible for it set his mind racing. How could that brat possibly have planned for that, or caused it, and why? Why was he so obsessed with keeping the two of them apart. It had to be more than just a protective little brother's impulse.

Still, Conan had soon replaced his frown with an eager smile, probably in some attempt to fool Ran, and he was making an announcement that actually made both of them feel better.

"Ran!" Conan exclaimed, "I just called uncle, and he says he's got a plan to solve the case. We've got to meet him by the fishing ship with the red roof, just south of here. He said he'll show up in a few minutes with Megure."

"Uncle?" Keima asked, "You mean Ran's dad?"

Conan nodded, still smiling, "Uncle says he's got the whole case figured out, but he still needs to prove a few things. Come on. Let's go!"


	3. Chapter 3: I Can See the Ending

The Loose Soul Murder Case

Chapter 3: I Can See the Ending

* * *

Sure enough, within fifteen minutes, everyone had gathered just in front of the fishing boat that Conan had indicated. It had a red, shingled roof, and was painted blue and white on the outside. Thick, metal railings cordoned off the deck, to keep men from falling overboard in harsh weather, and the name "the Huntsman" was painted on its side in bold, black lettering.

Police Inspector Megure had been the first to arrive on the scene after Ran, Conan and Keima, and he'd arrived with two powerful-looking officers following behind him. Only shortly after him, the captain of the vessel and the two members of his crew had arrived as well. They were all strong, powerful-looking men. The first mate was named Sato Shin, and was a broad-shouldered man in a plain blue t-shirt and jeans, with a thick beard and mustache. He wore tough-looking boots and black gloves, and looked intimidating.

The second mate of the ship was named Oshiro Yuuta; a spectacled, clean-shaven man with slick, black hair and a prominent, though not very wide chin. His nose was long, but not wide, and he was dressed in a navy blue outfit with rough shoes.

Finally, there was the captain; Yamada Kenta. He was an inch or so shorter than either of his mates, but his arms were powerfully built, and he looked a little scruffy, like the kind of man who's had a hard time making a living, and been constantly in danger of economic disaster.

The last to arrive on the scene was Mouri himself, just as Captain Yamada and Inspector Megure had begun to argue.

"Hello Megure." Mouri said as he walked up to the spot where the others were talking, "So, what's the evidence you wanted to talk to me about?"

"You should be the one telling -me.-" Megure replied, a bit irritably, after the sour note that his discussions with Yamada had been taking, "On the phone, you said it was evidence that you'd discovered."

However, as soon as Megure had said that, and a confused look had begun to spread across Mouri's face, Keima had seen the truth of the situation; at least in part.

"This is some kind of prank." Keima thought silently as he watched the proceedings, "Neither of them know anything about what's going on here."

Just at that point, however, as Mouri seemed about to ask another question, he leaned one hand against the wooden pole that the ship was tied to, and suddenly looked as though something had come over him; some kind of bizarre fainting spell or drug-induced fit. In a second, he was sitting on the ground and leaning against the pole with his head slumped over, as though he were asleep, and Keima wondered, for a moment, if he might actually have died. However, in just a second, they all heard Mouri speaking again.

"I'm sorry to confuse you, inspector. There's a reason why I called all of you here. I know what happened to that girl in the river. Did you bring the search warrant, inspector?"

"Well, yes, Mouri." Megure replied, as though Mouri had still been standing up, "My men can search Captain Yamada's boat any time."

"Why?" Yamada asked, looking frustrated, but Megure was the one who replied to that.

"A young girl's body was found this morning, in a river that your boat sailed up last night. Only your boat passed up the Tsurumi River during the time prior to the discovery, so if there's any more evidence about what happened, aside from what we found in the river itself, it's going to be here."

"I don't know anything about any of that." Yamada replied, looking a bit aggrivated, and neither of his mates seemed to know anything either, but Megure just shook his head.

"This warrant is for searching for evidence, not arresting anyone. Even if you don't know anything, there might still be evidence relevant to the case."

"In any case, though," Mouri continued from his slumped-over position, "One of you is lying."

At once, all three sailors turned to glare angrily at Mouri Kogorou, and Keima was also circling around the detective, looking carefully at him, and watching his face.

"His lips aren't moving." Keima thought to himself as he listened to Mouri speak, "Ventriloquism? Who would solve a case through ventriloquism? It looked more like he just collapsed, and then..."

Quickly, Keima's eyes began scanning the area, searching for any sign that something was amiss, and pacing around the dock. For the moment, Ran seemed to be distracted by her father, and wasn't paying any attention to Keima, which gave him the chance to do some searching of his own. He spotted only two new things at that point, however. One was Elsie, hiding in the bushes, as she'd been asked to do, and the other was Conan, crouching on the other side of the boat. That sight tugged on Keima's curiosity, and he slowly advanced towards Conan as "Mouri" continued to explain the situation.

"I've suspected something since I first saw the rope that Ochi used to pull Emiko's body from the water. In one place, it was cut, and in two other places, frayed. You must have noticed that too, Megure."

"Yes, I did," Megure admitted, "but most ropes are frayed in some places; especially old ropes."

"True," Mouri replied, "but did you happen to measure the distance between the two frayed points? Did you notice that it was exactly the same as the distance between the two supports of the bridge that stood over the Tsurumi River?"

At once, a look of realization began to dawn on Megure's face, and he remarked, "But Mouri... Why would someone tie a rope to the underside of a bridge if they were just going to jump off it and drown themselves? Was Emiko trying to hang herself, and if so, why weren't there more marks on the neck? On top of that, if she'd wanted to hang herself, wouldn't she just tie the rope to the bridge's railing, rather than climbing all the way to the supports?"

"Those are all good questions, Inspector," Mouri replied with a slight chuckle, "but they all share one common weakness. They all assume that Emiko died somewhere near the bridge itself, and close to the time she hit the water."

"What... What are you saying, Mouri?" the Inspector asked in confusion.

"Emiko was murdered, Inspector." Mouri said at last, "The culprit knocked her out with a blow to the head, which is how she received that bump you noted in your initial investigation. He then suffocated her, until she died from asphyxiation, but she wasn't underwater when it happened. She was on land. The murderer then realized that if he left her where she was, she'd be found, and his crime would be exposed. What could he do with her? Throw her into the ocean? No. She might wash up on shore, and an investigation would be conducted of all the ships in the area. Eventually he might be caught. Finally, knowing that he had to sail down the Tsurumi River that night, he came up with a plan."

"The murderer took her on board the ship when no one was looking, and stowed her in a place where no one would think to look; probably in the hold, under the cargo. Once the ship started up the Tsurumi River, he spotted the bridge, and decided to put his plan into action. Convincing his fellow crewmen to take that moment to check the books, or to do something else that would get them out of the way, he hauled the body back up on deck, and used his knife to cut a piece of rope, long enough for his purposes. He then climbed up onto the roof of the cabin, where he could reach the supports of the bridge from underneath, tied the body to the supports, and cut a small sliver out of the rope, so that the rope would eventually weaken, and the body fall."

"I see!" Megure exclaimed, picking up on what Mouri was saying, "He wanted the body to fall into the water, but not until he and the boat were far enough away that no one would suspect them. Also, it would make the death more likely to be seen as suicide than just throwing her into the ocean."

"That's right." Mouri replied, "However, while he was cutting a sliver in the rope, with the body already tied to it, the rope was briefly tangled in Emiko's hair, and his knife cut through one of her ribbons as well, which fell into the water below the bridge."

"Yes. That explains everything," Megure concluded at last, "except for one thing, Mouri. Was the culprit one of these three, and if so, which one, and why would he want to murder Emiko?"

"I was just about to ask him." Mouri said in a sharp, accusing tone of voice, "Why did you do it, Captain Yamada Kenta?!"

For a moment, everyone was just silent, and a look of fury was on Captain Yamada's face, but finally, Oshiro spoke up, looking flustered.

"Wait a minute!" he said, "That's all a very interesting theory, I'm sure, but you can't accuse Captain Yamada like that! You don't have any proof!"

"You were there when it happened, though you didn't see the crime itself." Mouri said a bit coldly, "Don't you remember what the Captain ordered you to do that night? The Captain, who'd have an easier time ordering his mates out of the way than anyone else onboard."

"Yes..." Oshiro confirmed, looking a bit hurt for a moment, "He did order me to check the books again, and he told Sato to clean the cabins, but that doesn't prove that he murdered anyone. The knife that cut the rope and ribbon could have been anyone's knife."

"Then there's just one more piece of evidence to discover." Mouri said, sounding quite satisfied, "Captain Yamada. Do you know what happened to your knife after last night?"

The Captain, however, didn't look the least bit threatened as he replied "No. I'm afraid I lost it."

"Well, that's a shame." Mouri replied, not missing a beat, "Inspector Megure. Please look over the top of the cabin's roof, on Captain Yamada's ship."

Somberly, Megure boarded the vessel, the three sailors looking very upset, but at last, the inspector peered over the roof of the cabin and gasped, then reached quickly for the top of the roof, and pulled on something. In a moment, it had come loose, and he turned to face the others, holding a long, sharp knife in his hand. The handle was made of carved wood with an iron wedge through it. The iron wedge continued up, through the handle and past the wood, into the blade itself.

"I take it that this is your missing knife." Megure said, walking back towards the captain, who was still smiling confidently.

"Yes it is." Captain Yamada replied, "Thank you for finding it for me. It was given to me by a very good friend, and I'd have been sorry to lose it."

"Still, this proves that you were on the roof of your ship's cabin." Megure said, raising one finger as he spoke, "That confirms Mouri's conclusions."

"I don't see how." Yamada replied, still with the same smug smile, "All it proves is that I was doing some work on my cabin's roof, but it doesn't prove that I killed anyone."

"So you're really going to try and bluff your way out of it, eh Yamada?" Mouri asked, "Alright, Megure. Look more closely at the knife's handle please."

In a moment, Megure had turned the knife over, and gasped in amazement again, even as Yamada's face turned a deep crimson. There, stuck in between the wood and metal, there were several strands of blond hair, and alongside them, there were specks of a deep red substance.

"This knife's handle is the weapon that Captain Yamada used to knock out Emiko before he killed her." Mouri explained, as the rage on Yamada's face turned to mortal terror, "It still has parts of her hair and what little blood escaped from her scalp when he struck her. He probably didn't even notice the blood, and the hair was most likely caught in the handle when he cut her ribbon. Now I ask again, Yamada; why?"

For a few moments, Yamada looked as though he was about to try to run or hide, but at last, he seemed to have come to the realization that there was no escape. He was caught. Finally, he slumped down on the dock with both hands balled up into fists.

"Sato and Oshiro never knew about any of this..." Captain Yamada almost gasped out as he stared at the boards underneath him, "They thought that our business was doing just fine, because we'd caught enough fish to satisfy the local markets, but a year ago, I realized that we were flat broke. I didn't have enough money for repairs to my ship, much less enough to pay my crew. I tried to sell my boat, even though I would have given anything to stay in this business. I love it so much. Then, a woman I didn't recognize showed up, and she offered me a hundred thousand, just like that. She said that all I had to do was... was..."

"Start working for her in secret." Mouri concluded aloud, "Smuggling, no doubt."

"Yes." Yamada replied at last, "Heroin. All I had to do was put it in the trunk of a car that she left parked behind a sushi shop by the river, and money would show up later; usually in my cabin, or some other place where only I ever went. I could never figure out how she got it there, or who she really was."

"Anyway, Emiko was coming out of the sushi restaurant, and cut through the back, just as I was dropping off the package. She started to accuse me, and tell me that I had to stop what I was doing, that I couldn't smuggle anymore, but this is the only time I've ever had enough money, and... I didn't want her to report what I'd been doing. She would have ruined me! She... She..."

Then, Captain Yamada slumped over on the dock, and didn't dare to look at any of them again, until he'd been taken away by the police.

* * *

Ran had stayed with her father for a while, after he'd woken up, and had been so preoccupied, that Keima had managed to slip away, so that he could spend some time thinking by himself. He was still angry about what had happened to Emiko, but the realization that it wasn't his doing had, if nothing else, made it easier to think clearly, and he was piecing everything together, bit by bit. As he stood behind one of the smaller shops in the area, contemplating the situation, Elsie tiptoed up to him from where she'd been hiding, and whispered in her usual high-pitched voice, "Kami-Sama! Kami-Nii-Sama! Have you figured out how to conquer Ran yet?"

"It shouldn't be a problem." Keima replied, not even looking at Elsie directly as he spoke to her, "It's the kid that worries me. He's the one who really solved this case; I'm sure of it. Also, he keeps getting in the way. I think I have a way to get past that problem, but still... That kid's clever, and much stronger than he looks. He can't just be a normal little kid. He's... he's..."

For just a moment, Keima felt as though Conan was standing over him, watching him from above, like some intimidating giant, but as he thought about the list of qualities that he'd seen Conan demonstrate, he realized that it was a very familiar list; one that he'd heard recited to him recently, and it brought a new, startling conclusion to his mind; one that he'd never considered before.

Still, the moment that the idea occurred to Keima, he latched onto it. "Why not?" he'd thought. It was far from the strangest thing he'd ever heard of. Before three seconds had passed, Keima was certain that his new conclusion was right, and at last, he tilted his head back and started laughing.

"Aw-haw haw haw haw haw!" Keima laughed, his eyes rolling upwards as he cackled, "Aw-haw haw haw!"

"Kami-Sama!" Elsie exclaimed, actually looking worried, "Are you sick?"

However, in response, Keima's face grew very intense again, and with an eager smile, he replied, "I'm fine. You see, I know Edogawa Conan's secret now, and I can see the ending!"

* * *

Keima had taken only a moment to find out where Ran lived, and to stop by her place to put a letter in her mailbox. After that, in between trips to the game store, he'd stopped by her address only a couple more times that evening, to make sure that the letter had been taken in. On his second trip by there, he'd looked up into the large, open windows, which read "Mouri Detective Agency," and was gratified by the sight of Conan, who was looking down out of the window at him, with an angry look on his face. Keima had removed his glasses just a moment later, and as he'd hoped, that had caused Conan's face to go just a little pale. Finally, Keima had put his glasses back on and returned to his gaming, leaving the area until almost eleven in the evening.

At that point, Keima returned to the Mouri Detective Agency, picked up a couple of rocks, and tossed them at the windows, one by one. He couldn't see much of what was going on inside, but after just a couple of moments, the tall shape of a teenage girl had moved to the window, looked out, and then rushed back away from the window again. At that point, Keima waited, leaning against the tree outside the building, and looking up at the sky, through the leaves.

When Ran emerged from the building, a moment later, she was dressed in a light jacket and a long skirt, and wearing shoes and warm socks. She smiled when she saw that it was Keima, but it began to fade as she realized that he wasn't smiling back.

"I'm sorry to bug you," Keima said, looking at her from where he stood by the tree, "Today was a great victory for your father, and I'm afraid I'm just souring things. I know your father wouldn't want you to see me..."

"Yes, but don't worry." Ran replied with a smile, "He didn't want me to see you earlier, and he kept yelling that you were just a punk."

"Thank you for listening to me ramble." Keima said at last, "I know I get depressed so easily. Sometimes, it may feel like I only know how to be sad, but I'm usually very happy."

For a moment, Keima spotted a slight sadness spreading across Ran's face as well, but soon, her smile returned, and she said "After all you've just gone through, I can understand."

"I don't know why I still feel so bad inside." Keima said finally, "After all that, I should feel better, but in a way, I feel even worse, like I'm more at fault now than ever."

"I... I don't understand." Ran replied, her smile vanishing at once.

"It was a feeling that started when I learned what had happened to Emiko. I knew she was gone, but I wouldn't accept it at first, and I kept wondering if somehow, it might be my fault. I was just waiting and wondering, worried I'd never know the truth. There's no worse feeling in the world. Nobody can know what it's like unless they've felt it themselves. I guess there's only a few people who would know what that feels like."

However, Ran's expression had turned, in those few seconds, to one of the deepest sadness and guilt, as she looked into Keima's eyes and said, in almost a whisper "I know exactly what that feels like, Keima. I feel sorry for you, but I wonder how long you'll feel like that. A few days. A couple weeks, maybe. You've just come to the beginning, Keima, but I've felt this way for... for... I don't even know how long."

"You don't understand half of it!" Keima exclaimed, suddenly turning to her with an angry expression, "You're just trying to make me feel better! How can you say I'll get over it?! Do you honestly think I can just move on after something like this?!"

"Yes, you will!" Ran shouted back, just as angrily, "You have to! Emiko isn't going to come back to you, Keima! It doesn't matter how close you were, she's never... never..."

However, the more that Ran shouted, the more that her eyes filled with tears, and at last, she'd begun to break down. The pain that she'd been keeping inside for so long had finally burst out like water from a broken dam, and in moments, she was so distraught that she looked like she was about to fall over. Quickly, Keima rushed forward and caught her in his arms, and at first, she looked surprised, as his intense, pained eyes were staring into hers, but finally, Keima said "I don't know if I can move beyond this, Ran, but I know you can't."

For a few moments, Ran just looked blankly into Keima's face, tears still flowing down her cheeks, but finally, she began to talk to him again.

"I don't know... I never knew... I never knew how to move on, but it's been so long... so long... I know I... Why does it feel so horrible to think of actually doing that?"

"I can only tell you how it feels for me." Keima responded as best he could, "I know the one I lost was worthy of love. That's why it's so hard to let go."

"You don't want to lie to me, do you?" Ran asked finally, drying her face with her jacket for a moment, "You just want to help me, don't you? You'd never want me to be left in the dark?"

"I was left in the dark." Keima replied solemnly, "I could never want that for you."

"Keima..." Ran whispered, a smile returning to her face, and in just a moment, as the two were wrapped in each other's arms, their faces began to draw closer and closer together, until there less than half an inch from each other.

"Thank you."

Keima was actually surprised by those words, because in a moment, he found that Ran was looking back up at him, even as she opened his arms almost effortlessly, releasing herself from his grip.

"Keima..." Ran said as she stood across from him with a fresh smile on her face, almost like that of a newborn, "You really do understand me, don't you?"

Keima just found himself nodding, wondering if there was any part of the route that he'd forgotten, but as he watched, Ran's smile began to grow brighter and brighter.

"I've been so lonely for so long." Ran said, turning to look up at the sky for a moment, "I knew Shinichi was near, but I was sure he couldn't understand how it felt for me, to be kept in the dark like this. But you understand, and that makes me feel better than I have in months."

"I can't give up on Shinichi until I'm sure he's dead." Ran finally admitted, "But even though we've only known each other for a little while, I think you understand me better than anyone. I hope we can keep talking, Keima. Just being friends with you... It's cheered me up so much, I feel like I'm about to burst. Thank you so much!"

Then, in what felt like a flash, Ran had stepped forward, and in a moment, Keima had felt the single, light peck of Ran's lips on his own.

Suddenly, there was a rush of air, and a brilliant light, shooting up from Ran as she and Keima kissed, and Keima's eyes, for just a moment, glanced upward, where Elsie had flown by overhead, uncorking her capture bottle. The evil, glowing loose soul that had been driven out of Ran was soon caught in the bottle, and Elsie cheered as she corked the bottle and shrunk it down to a transportable size.

"We caught it, Kami-Nii-Sama!" Elsie exclaimed in a voice that only he could hear, flying off to deliver the loose soul, as Ran stepped back towards the entrance to the Mouri Detective Agency, still smiling, though she wasn't looking at Keima anymore. In fact, she didn't even seem to see him anymore, as she stepped back inside, closing the door behind her.

Keima was relieved to have finally succeeded in the conquest, even though it hadn't ended in quite the way he'd planned, but he stayed outside the building for another minute, playing his PFP, until he heard the voice of the one other person he'd been waiting for.

"Hey, Keima! What did you mean by sending me a threatening note? Do you think you can just do whatever you want to Ran, and...?"

"Shut up, Shinichi!"

Keima had said those words so quickly, and so angrily, that for a moment, Conan didn't seem to grasp what had just been said.

"Don't tell me to... to... Eh... Ehahahaha... Keima, I'm not Shinichi. I'm..."

"I said shut up, Shinichi!" Keima exclaimed, more angrily than before, "I'm sick of listening to your fake-kiddie voice, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

"N-no! I'm n-not...!" Conan almost gasped out, finally getting very nervous as the realization dawned on him that Keima knew his secret.

"A genius, a mystery-solver, good at finding things, figuring out things, hiding, sneaking, creative, clever, and good at disguising yourself." Keima explained, staring right into Conan's eyes as he spoke with a glare as cold as ice, "Denying it any longer is just insulting my intelligence, Shinichi."

At last, looking up into Keima's eyes, Conan seemed to realize that there was no getting away that time, and his face started to take on a firmer expression as he gradually faced his fears. When he spoke next, the high-pitched tone was gone from his voice, and he talked to Keima in a voice very much like that of a seventeen-year-old.

"What did you want with Ran?" Conan asked firmly, but when Keima answered, it was nothing like what Conan had expected.

"I want nothing to do with any 3D girls." he snapped, "I don't do this because I want to. Ran needed my help. I just saved her life, and probably yours too. What you don't get, and maybe you never will, is that it was all because of you."

"What?" Conan gasped, "Me? What did I do?"

"You forced her out." Keima replied, just as coldly as before, "Again and again, she kept giving you reasons to open up to her; to share your danger with her. It's all she wants in the world; to share the hardships and the dangers with you, in return for being let in, and not kept in the dark anymore. If you can't see that, then maybe you're not much of a detective after all."

"Idiot!" Conan shouted back, "I know all that! I just can't let her! I can't let her endanger herself like that!"

"She was in danger tonight, and probably an even worse danger." Keima replied without missing a beat, however, "You can't save her from that without bringing her back from the darkness you've left her in. But then again, you've done worse than just leave her in darkness, haven't you? You've tried to stop other people from bringing her light, just like you did today, when you got between me and her. You've been her jailor, Shinichi. You've kept her from love."

"That's not true!" Conan hissed angrily, "I love Ran more than anybody!"

"You 3D people don't mean anything when you say 'love.' You're all talk." Keima said back, "When you love someone, you spend all the time you can with them, and you want to share every part of your life with them, just as I want to share every part of my life with those I love most..."

"Ran..." Conan whispered in dread, before Keima finished his sentence.

"Games!"

"Aah!" Conan gasped, almost falling over as the impact of the bizarre statement hit him.

"I always devote time to my games. I want to share my life with my games. I want to spend all the time I can with my games. I love my games far more than any 3D girls. You've done none of these things, so how can your love be anything more than a facade, Shinichi? If you want to keep pretending that you love Ran, you need to do better than that, and in any case, whether or not you're trying to love her, something has to change. Of course, I don't expect you to change at all. I'm disgusted by people like you, but then again, you're only a real world person."

Then, pulling out his PFP from his pockets, Keima turned away from Conan, and headed back down the street. Until he was well out of sight, Conan didn't stop scowling.

* * *

When Ran finally woke up the next morning, she felt very different than she usually did. Better than she had in months, in fact. She felt as though she was walking on air, and she couldn't explain why, but in a certain sense, she felt even less lonely than she usually did.

What had woken her up was the rays of sunlight, reflecting off the other buildings in the city, and shining in the windows of the room where she'd been sleeping the night before, just above the detective agency offices where her father worked. However, when she opened her eyes to let the light in once again, what she saw was very different from anything that she'd ever expected to see.

There was Conan, fully dressed and stepping away from the window with a very serious look on his face. As he walked towards her, one step after another, with the light of the sun shining at his back, Ran began to feel as though something was wrong.

Conan was usually so active and emotional, and to see him acting like... Well, like an adult... It was so jarring and strange.

Conan finally stopped when he was standing right across from where Ran lay. For a moment, the two just stared into each others eyes, until at last, slowly, Conan reached up, and pulled his glasses off.

"Ran..." Conan said, as she sat bolt upright, her eyes widening in shock and alarm, "There's something that you should know."

* * *

The End


End file.
